Meanderings: A small diversion off the motorway

Monday, April 04, 2011

A small diversion off the motorway

We have been heading down to Salisbury on a fairly regular basis for about six years now (Six? Are you sure? Is it really SIX YEARS?????? And, erm, yes it is :-S ). We have a variety of routes that we take, but our main one has us on the M5 from Birmingham to Cirencester. And as you pass from Gloucester towards Tewkesbury there is, to the left, a truly pretty meadow, with a river running through it, boats moored along the banks, a pretty looking church sat above it. I look out for it as we pass along the motorway. It seems to be rather a happy place. And I have for a very long time wondered where, exactly, it was. Not its location. I could pinpoint its location with amazing accuracy. But I wasn't sure which village it was or even which river it was on.

On Saturday we decided that we had time, the weather was fine, the time had come to find this village. So I set Kathy the Sat Nav to a village which looked likely on the map and off the motorway we came, ready for adventures.

And we found it. The village is called Bredon, and it sits alongside one of the many rivers Avon. This one decants into the Severn at Tewkesbury. And I have to say it is a very pretty little village. There is, of course, the church. There's a rather nice looking pub. It seems there is a National Trust property thereabouts. There are walking tracks and there is the river. We didn't really have time for a proper exploration but have decided that over the summer we will leave quite a lot more time and go by and collect the church and the NT barn and possibly even have lunch in the pub. It really was worth the effort of turning off the motorway and going out in search of it.

And we were not the only ones. As we returned to the car from a gentle stroll through the village a couple of people stopped us and asked if there is a walking track along the river. They too have been travelling up and down the M5 for several years and had been wondering where that pretty looking village and marina were and had also chosen that afternoon to come and find out!!